


Gabil Imh (A Great Making)

by lferion



Series: The Making of Dwarves [3]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (Movies), The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Drabble, Dwarf Gender Concepts, Khazâd November, Nonbinary Dwarves, Other, Quadruple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-17 21:01:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9344399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lferion/pseuds/lferion
Summary: Durin is not quite the same as the other Fathers and Mothers of the Dwarves.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks go to Zana & Morgynleri for encouragement & sanity-checking.  
> Written for Day 5 of Khazâd November, and first posted [here](http://lferion.tumblr.com/post/152780635025/khazad-november-durin) on tumblr.

It is said that in the starlit morning of the world, before Moon or Sun were set to sail the aether, the fathers and mothers of the Dwarves woke and walked and explored the world Mahal had Made them to live within, but Durin woke first, and alone. 

Alone he wandered, wondering at things beautiful and terrible, fearful and full of awe, simple and complex, large and small, and there was born in him an ache, an urge, a _need_ : to create, to shape, to make — for indeed he (and the others, co-equal in form and heart and spirit) was a Child of Mahal, given spark by Eru Above — and so he sang, making song with breath and voice, hand and movement.

He spoke to the stones and waters, olvar and kelvar, cavern and cliff and shelving shore, the lord of air and the lady of stars, Mahal his Maker and the Green Lady, (even Elves when he encountered them, astonished at another voice, a different speech, though long it was before ever that occurred), learning and growing in love and understanding of the world around, above, beneath him. And still he yearned to Make, to shape, to create; song and speech were not sufficient in themselves to the need within him. 

When Durin Slept long ages before Waking, he had dreamed, though he did not remember. Now, in the world, he dreamed sleeping and waking, and recalled both. Dreams of fire and rock, iron and air, water and wood set to use, shaped into tools of purpose and beauty in that use. Might his hands not make those dreams real? Real as song in his ears, words on his fingers and tongue? Forge-fire, hearth-fire, working-water and drinking-water, shaping-metal and sleeping-stone, bellows and breath: a making-place. A Dwarf-home.

But home was not just one, but more-than-one, a place of many different makings, of working together and apart-but-not-alone. Durin’s fellow-fathers slept, woke with partners, fellow-mothers, with them, but he (he? She? They?) was singular, alone. But not, she found, looking within themself in the quiet of a deep place under stone, the murmur of fire on one side, the plash of water on the other, air silent and bright all around, not without resource, potential, generative means. It would take time, and effort, will and work, blood and bone and breath, indeed a great Making, that there be children of Durin.


End file.
